This excuse DRAMATICALLY lost its significance when Jim Dahle of White Coat Investor also did not attend FinCon (trust me if you want to rebuild the physician blogosphere up from the rubble, he is the one you want to do it since it would just be a repeat of what he has already done)

But honestly these responses/excuses felt hollow.

So what was really preventing me from making my first appearance at a conference that had my fellow bloggers excited about attending for the past few months?

Everyone who knows me will classify me as far from the introvert spectrum as possible

During our office Christmas party for over 500 employees, for example, I have on more than one occasion gotten on stage and taken over lead singer duties with a local favorite 80’s cover band band (I performed Jump Around by House of Pain one year and It Takes Two (Rob Base) the year prior).

So I felt the introversion component of that post could definitely be ruled out as a potential root cause for me not attending FinCon this year.

The doubts that swirled around me of whether I was good enough to enter this space is the epitome of Imposter Syndrome.

There are wonderful memories that have been created at FinCon ’18, none of which are mine.

The opportunity to transform virtual friends into actual friends in the real world has been lost or at the very least, postponed.

The opportunity to be immersed directly with like-minded people in a conference designed to bring this very collaborative group together has also been wasted.

As I type this I am quite disappointed that I let inertia and complacency, coupled with Imposter Syndrome, prevent me from breaking free of my comfort zone and venture into uncharted waters.

As I am already wistfully looking at photos from this conference popping up on the various social media outlets, even while the conference is ongoing, I realize that I did make a mistake and let this syndrome get the better of me, just like it had in the past.

Time is not guaranteed for anyone and who knows what lies in store for this blog or me, but my plans are to attend the 2019 FinCon event (in Washington DC) so that I can prove to myself that I am not an imposter anymore.

Even if this blog crashes in a big ball of flames, I still would like to attend as a “former blogger” and meet the people that I have grown quite fond of.

So for all my blogging friends who were attendees fortunate enough to experience FinCon 2018, I send out a plea that you will make every effort to attend the conference in 2019 so I can negate some of the mistakes I made this year and actually meet you in person.

And for those who, like me, missed out on memories from FinCon 2018 due to Imposter Syndrome (or something else), please join me as we put any doubts that we may have to bed.

Hope to see you there.

(p.s. I call “not it” on being the Designated Survivor)

[Update: I have since purchased passes for FinCon ’19, booked a room at the conference hotel, and requested the time off, so I am now officially FinCon bound.]

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-Xrayvsn

NOTE: The website XRAYVSN contains affiliate links and thus receives compensation whenever a purchase through these links is made (at no further cost to you). Although these proceeds help keep this site going they do not have any bearing on the reviews of any products I endorse which are from my own honest experiences. Thank you- XRAYVSN

I appreciate your input. Well hopefully being a veteran of FinCon will finally put that imposter syndrome to rest. I think with more than a year ob blogging under my belt I may feel a little better about it than if I had gone this year with only 5 months of work 🙂

Road trip for FinCon 19? We could make it happen. I too have not attended but mainly because it was really far from California, I was on call that weekend, and my wife would have not appreciated my use of vacation days to go to FinCon. Next year though….who knows.

LOL. I hope you guys had more interesting things to talk about than my whereabouts, LOL (I was at work by the way living vicariously through everyone’s photos on FB etc). Can’t wait to meet you at the next one!

Thanks MB. Although I am lazy on a lot of other issues (I actually have a post I created bemoaning that fact), I do not think it played a factor in this. Mainly thought I was to new to the scene and would be laughed out of the conference outright 🙂 I definitely plan to rectify this next year as I have already bought the tickets and booked a hotel. Now it’s just a very long waiting game 🙂 That is too bad that you won’t consider coming to one, I think you would be well received as well. Thank… Read more »

No regrets dude. Some groupies did come up to me asking for Xrayvsn’s autograph. When I told them they were mistaken and that I was merely Millionaire Doc with no special superpowers they took back their pens in grand disappointment. Apparently being a millionaire at FINCON is not that impressive.
Looking forward to hanging out with you in DC buddy.

LOL. That would be a sight to see. Xrayvsn groupies 🙂 Definitely want to meet up with you too. Hope we can do PhysCon II (crispy doc I hope you can not only come but organize another great get together like you did last time)

I do hope you make it to FinCon 19. From all accounts we have missed out on a ton and really don’t need to miss out anymore. Let’s get rid of imposter syndrome once and for all 😊. Thanks for the comment

I suspect that just like the rest of this year’s newbies, myself included, you’re going to love it. I’d say more, but to quote Fred Schwed: “There are certain things that cannot be explained to a virgin either by words or pictures. ” I don’t think I’ll have the accumulated goodwill to dump the kids on my wife for a week next year in addition to other planned boys’ weekends, but I’ll be happy to anoint you the new Physcon organizer, my friend. With the gift of hindsight, allow me to suggest that you plan a mid afternoon happy hour… Read more »

There are so many important bits in here about impostor syndrome (which I definitely struggle with as well), but all I can focus on is you singing It Takes Two. Starting a petition now to require a live performance at FinCon.

LOL. Well if that’s the case I may have to practice some again (there is a ton of lyrics and it comes at you pretty fast). I was lucky that I was friends with the band and they told me beforehand that they were going to have me on stage for that song so I got to prep for it 🙂

Really appreciate that TPP. So glad you are going because according to everyone, you were one of the big hits for this year’s FinCon so really looking forward to meeting you and having face to face discussions.

Well I don’t think you should consider yourself an imposter any more. I think your message has spread and your reach growing that you definitely have a website that belongs in this realm.

I’m glad that you will be joining us in DC. I never knew about imposter syndrome until I talked to you. I didn’t know it was a thing. LOL, if anybody was going to have imposter syndrome, it should have been me. My blog is not wildly successful. And I only have like maybe three posts related to finance (and one of them is Gasem’s guest post, LOL!). And rest assured that you can stay anonymous. When you register, just put XrayVsn as your display name for your name badge. And like I said earlier, everybody will respect your decision… Read more »

Thanks DMF. Really looking forward to meeting you. I’m glad you went this year and had a great time. And you most certainly belong this year and next and so on. There is a lot of work blogging so even if you don’t have many posts you deserve it (and I should have thought the same way too this year but didn’t)

Thanks for the post. I feel the same too. For me , it was already too late by the time I started my blog. August 2018. For next year one, I am still trying to convince myself of my worthiness. What will I talk about? Am I an imposter?
Reading your post gave me some courage. I will start looking into it for next year. I heard the hotels are expensive…

Thanks for the comment DBEF. I know the hotel where the conference is located at was giving a special rate but anyway you slice it, 4 nights in DC will be a hit to the wallet. I am going to try and combine it with a visit down the road to my alma mater (Johns Hopkins) which is down the road since I have been there in probably a decade or so.

Definitely hope to see you next year. I figured with my income I would not qualify for the scholarship plus would be better to save it for someone who might not have attended it without one. But yes hotel and passes are booked for fincon 2019. Very excited

I know I’m late to comment, but I totally know how you feel. I get that Imposter feeling too and hesitated to go to FinCon because I’m not really a true “finance” blogger. What stuck with me was remembering PoF say to me that he wished he had gone to FinCon the first year of his blog because there was so much to learn even as a newbie. I’ve been blogging for several years but want to do so more seriously, so it was great help for that. Now I feel like I’m part of a “doctor writer” network, and… Read more »